Cash Crops

Overview

A cash crop is a

Wheat - a common cash crop

ny crop grown to be sold on the market. Subsistence crops, on the other hand, are those crops grown for personal consumption or use.
Coffee, cotton, cocoa and tobacco are some of the most common cash crops grown on a large scale, all over the world. Other common cash crops include other food items such as rice, wheat, tea and fruit.

History

The popularity of the Cash Crops began to expand in the seventeenth century when European countries were settling into colonies (see The Scramble for Africa). Some of these colonizers include England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. These colonizers took advantage of their new land by building plantations in order to grow tobacco, a product they believed would sell very well in Europe. The wealth of these colonists only increased, expanding their plantations to include other crops. This success spiked the interest of further settlers all over the world. For more than 175 years tobacco formed a foundation for economies in many countries. Buyers in Europe continued to stay interested, constantly welcoming new products from these foreign countries.
Cash crops used up much of the farming land in the colonies, resulting in the loss of space for the local farmers to grow their own food. In some countries, such as Tanzania, farmers were forced to grow coffee, rather than crops for the locals to eat. The colonists controlled what was grown and left everyone else to fend for themselves. They provided their colonies with one large benefit: a huge amount of wealth. This wealth however, disappeared when each country found its independence, colonial connections were severed, and the countries were left poor.

Significance

Cash crops currently make up a large percentage of the total produce of farms in developed countries and undeveloped countries alike. They produce large additions to the economies of most countries all over the world. Not only this, but cash crops have created booming trade based economies

Cotton Pickers in Africa

all over the world, aiding in globalization (see Economic Globalization). This interconnection of product exporting has changed the world’s access to products that were once unattainable or luxuries. Fruit such as oranges and mangos, for example, were once thought of as a very rare treat in cooler places such as Canada and England. With the system of exportation that cash crops pushed into existence, almost anything is accessible, despite where it is grown.

However, cash crops have negative i

Hungry children of Africa

mpacts as well. The land used for cash crops in undeveloped countries takes up most of the land needed to grow food for the local population itself to eat. African countries, for example, receive much lower prices on their exported cash crops, which only push the countries further into poverty. Large companies continue to buy land from the governments of these countries, creating large cash crop directed farms. This forces local farmers to lose their land and jobs. Not only does this cause these countries to be unable to grow enough food for themselves, but they remain too poor to import food from elsewhere.

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